Transactional analytics start-up ERN secures $2 million funding

ERN, a UK-based start-up looking to tap growing demand for data analytics and loyalty provisioning on consumer cards, has secured funding of $2 million from private investors.

ERN's technology platform - which is fully PCI and ISO 27001 compliant - is capable of processing 100,000 transactions per second and is designed to help banks and merchants boost customer loyalty by enabling them to create value-added products based on the analysis of this transactional data.

Consumers are catered for through the development of a smartphone app that will enable them to track their spending in real-time and take advantage of merchant reward offers.

ERN co-Founder and CEO Dan Brassington has 17 years of experience within the IT industry including senior technical roles at investment banks such as JPMorgan, Citigroup and RBS.

He says the real value of a transaction is not in the card fees or the money that changes hands but in the data that transaction generates. This data can be used to turn a one-off punter into a long-term, loyal customer.

"Currently banks struggle to harness the big data created by transactions due to legacy IT systems and the fact that they may only see top-line information about a transaction - the customer name and amount spent - rather than detailed information about the specific item purchased," he says. "Customers are also being short-changed - this transactional data belongs to them and they have the right to see every detail of their spending in real time, not having to waiting 48 hours for statements to update."

The one-year old company - which has a list of stellar names from the banking, retail, and payment card industry on its advisory board - says it is currently working towards proof of concept trials with a number of high street banks, acquirers and major retailers in the UK, with a launch due to take place in early 2013.